222 PROCEEDINGS OP THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ? CONVENTION. 



to be rather thin-skinned, rather transparent, but, like some women, 

 it was a fine looker. After a great deal of tribulation I got some of 

 the vine of the grape and some of the raspberry and Mr. Bourson 

 promised to send them to me. Believing I knew the French character 

 well enough to doubt whether I would get the vines, I sent him $20, 

 and I knew he would not send it back and that he would send me some 

 vines, and he did. I turned them over to Mr. Maslin. I don't know 

 whether Maslin knows his business or not, but he couldn't make them 

 grow. I believe a great many good things could be picked up in that 

 way that would mean a great many dollars for California. 



THE CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sprague will now speak to us on u Improve- 

 ment of Inland Waterways/' 



IMPROVEMENT OF INLAND WATERWAYS. 



By A. K. SPRAGUE, of Sacramento. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : When the Chairman asked 

 me how short my paper would be or of what length it would be, 

 I told him he might make it long or short, according to the necessities 

 of the occasion, inasmuch as I should speak from carefully prepared 

 notes, but that the subject, it seemed to me, was so important that it 

 demanded a very general discussion. We are very fortunate, indeed, 

 in President Roosevelt's administration in very many ways, and in 

 none more than his large grasp of affairs. He is not a man who is 

 satisfied to follow along in the narrow groove of precedent, and in no 

 other particular has he demonstrated this more completely than in his 

 treatment of the subject-matter of waterways. You know the history 

 of the river and harbor bills for years and years. It has been the 

 custom for each locality to lobby for an appropriation for its particular 

 ^creek or river, quite regardless of the real merit of the plan. If the 

 representative was successful in securing a large appropriation for his 

 district, he was considered to have served his people admirably. 

 President Roosevelt, in common with many other citizens, had got 

 tired of that thing, and so, something over a year ago, when the subject 

 was presented to him, he determined to find out the facts in regard 

 to the improvements of rivers, in regard to all of the complex 

 problems involved in the improvement of navigable waters, and so 

 he appointed a commission which is known as the National Water- 

 ways Commission, to take into consideration the whole problem con- 

 nected with the improvement of navigable waters. We were fortu- 

 nate in having a large portion of that commission present at the 

 National Irrigation Congress, which, as you know, convened in Sac- 

 ramento a few weeks ago. In order to confer with that commission 



